Strange encounters of the animal kind

This black bear was traveling all over Cincinnati but hasn't been seen in weeks.(Photo: Thanks to Miami Township)

He hasn't been seen for weeks, but the black bear roaming Clermont County and Eastern Hamilton County earlier this summer caused quite a stir.

Spotted at the end of June swimming across the Ohio River from Kentucky, the bear first showed up in Clermont County's Miami Township. He later made his way into Montgomery and Madeira, down to Oakley and was last sighted near Eastgate in Union Township.

All the excitement surrounding the bear got us at The Community Press wondering – what other crazy wildlife calls have our local police, fire/EMS or maintenance departments received?

The stories we heard run the gamut from amusing, like the pig that trapped medics inside a house, to potentially dangerous, like the hit-and-run accident involving a kidnapped deer. Some were tragic, like the man who was killed by his pet snake, and others, like the foot left next to a gas station pump, remain a bit of a mystery.

Colerain Township

One of the strangest incidents Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Lt. Chris Ketteman remembers was in 2006. He was called to the Speedway gas station on Colerain Avenue because there was a severed foot next to one pump.

Ketteman, now the District 3 commander, said at first he thought deputies were joking, but after arriving on scene, there it was. It looked like a human foot and was sent to the coroner's office for examination. It was later determined to be the skinned foot of a bear.

If you looked close, Ketteman said the foot only had four toes, but none of the officers wanted to get that close at the scene. "Our best theory was someone went hunting and it fell off a vehicle," he said. "We never determined where it came from."

Lt. Brian Stapleton, who heads the Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Section, said while that case was unusual, similar calls are not uncommon.

"Several times a year, we get calls about various bones found and brought home by family pets," he said. "A lot of times it takes the expertise of the coroner's office to determine if it's human or animal."

A mysterious foot was found by a gas station pump in 2006. It turned out to a bear foot.(Photo: Thanks to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office)

Columbia Township

It seemed like a routine response – a report of a truck hitting a deer near the intersection of Wooster Pike and Newtown Road. But when Sheriff's deputy Nick Hoevel arrived at the scene, there was no truck and no deer. A short time later, Hoevel got a call from Mariemont police asking for his help.

When he arrived on scene, a truck matching the description from the accident was in the driveway, and a young buck was in the passenger seat. Hoevel assumed the man just wanted tags for the meat, but that's when the incident took a strange turn. As he walked by the truck, "it lifts its head up – the deer was still alive," Hoevel said.

"The guy told me how its leg was broken and he sat there with it petting its head because he didn't want it to die alone and scared," Hoevel said. "He put it in the truck to bring home after it didn't die because he wanted to keep it in his backyard and nurse it back to health."

Hoevel tried to explain the two options – letting it go and nature taking its course, or euthanizing the deer – but the man was hard to convince. "He was adamant that he wanted to keep the deer," Hoevel said.

The man finally agreed to bring the deer to a secluded area near Bass Island so it could be put down, and Hoevel said he thought it would be the end of the odd situation. He was wrong.

"As we were headed down Wooster Pike from Mariemont, he passes Newtown Road and started going faster, about 65 mph," Hoevel said. "I was thinking, 'I can't get into a pursuit with this guy who has a live deer in his car,' and then he pulls over in front of Avoca Park."

Hoevel ended up shooting the deer, which he said then jumped up and started running around before finally dying. The man was screaming, crying and calling the deputy names, but even after all that, Hoevel said he still asked for his tags.

Mariemont Police Chief Rick Hines also remembers that incident, which happened a couple years ago, and laughs about how strange it was. "I guess he thought he was going to take it to the veterinarian," he said. "It's just amazing that the deer didn't hurt or kill him inside the car. If he would have kept it in the car long enough, it would have turned into a really bad situation."

A young buck in the front seat of a truck. The man who hit it told officers he wanted to nurse the deer back to health.(Photo: Thanks to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office)

Pierce Township

Much of the community lies in fairly rural areas of Clermont County, and that's led to some unusual encounters for firefighters and paramedics.

In one incident, crews responded to a Culvert Court apartment and saw a large python when they entered. "When they commented on the python, the guy said he had an alligator in the bathtub, and he actually did," Fire Chief Craig Wright said. "I guess he had nowhere else to put it."

Another time, medics arrived at a farm where a woman was having trouble breathing. It's typically a standard call, but this time was different. "She had a farm pig that was aggressive, and they couldn't get out of the house," Wright said. "She had to call a relative to come over and distract the pig so they could get out."

Firefighters also rescued a pet lynx, which is a wild cat a little bigger than a normal house cat, after a house fire on state Route 749.

In another strange incident, firefighters put out a house fire on Jenny Lind Road, and as the smoke cleared, they noticed eyes peering at them everywhere.

"The owner was apparently a hunter and this was his trophy room," Wright said. "There were elephants and large game mounted all over this room."

Anderson Township

Neither the Rumpke driver nor former Sheriff's Lt. Mike Hartzler could have guessed when they went to work on a June morning in 2011, they'd have to deal with a 6-foot-long Burmese python.

The driver noticed the snake on top of his truck as he was emptying the Dumpster behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Beechmont Avenue. Hartzler, who was commander of District 5 at the time, was summoned and discovered the snake on the ground with its tail wrapped around a broom.

"I wanted to get him out of the sun and into the box where he could relax a little," Hartzler said at the time. "He was fine (and) he wasn't aggressive at all. A lot of people, unfortunately, have these kinds of exotic pets and then when they can't take care of them, they just turn them loose."

Sheriff's Lt. Chris Ketteman, who is now District 3 commander, also remembers an odd call when he was a patrol officer in Anderson.

A woman had called to report a possible burglary at her home. When Ketteman arrived, he said stuff was knocked off the shelves and it looked like someone rifled through her belongings. "We figured out it was actually a raccoon. She had a nest of them living in her chimney," he said.

Mariemont

Maintenance Superintendent John Scherpenberg had two encounters one day this April. First, he received an unusual call from Bob Flanigan, who works for the Mariemont City Schools, about a turkey that ran in front of his car on Wooster Pike.

Bob Flanigan, who works for the Mariemont City Schools, left, and Mariemont Maintenance Superintendent John Scherpenberg with a wild turkey caught in the village's business district along Wooster Pike.(Photo: Provided)

Scherpenberg helped corral the turkey, first spotted in the parking lot near the Mariemont Executive Building, and released it into the South 80 acres park, a wooded area near the Little Miami River.

"We believe it might have been raised by someone and let go because it was very friendly and not afraid of people," he said.

Later that day, maintenance employees found a snapping turtle by one of the sheds and were able to scoop it into a large garbage can.

"We let it go down by the river once we got it to settle down," Scherpenberg said.

A snapping turtle found near Mariemont's maintenance shed was put into a large trash can until it could be released near the Little Miami River.(Photo: Provided)

Symmes Township

One incident here took a tragic turn when a Symmes Township man was killed by his pet snake.

In 2006, a woman called 911 to report a 13-foot-long python had wrapped itself around owner's neck.

When Sheriff's deputies arrived, they found a man face-down in the cage with the snake around his neck. He had apparently slipped and hit his head before the snake moved in. Deputies removed the python and Loveland-Symmes medics unsuccessfully performed CPR.